On EA's financial call to investors, CEO John Riccitiello said the company's still bullish on opportunities in the PC gaming market—the publisher said it plans to ship 30 PC platform titles in fiscal 09, the same number it has scheduled for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 during the period.
"Were it not for The Sims and the WoW box sales, it'd be a pretty dismal sector," said Riccitiello, responding to an investor who inquired about "soft" PC retail sales. "The fastest growing [sector] is subscription, microtransactions-based and casual games, many of which are pretty much centered on the PC. One of the things we try to look at at EA is the total business represented on PC game software, and we're seeing a growth in business there. It's been growing for several years... it's categorized wrongly by looking simply at the box side of the equation."